Germany’s gas Ukraine buys is 40-70 dlrs cheaper than Russian - Boiko

Ukraine started importing gas from Europe

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KIEV, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— The price of natural gas that Ukraine purchases from Germany is 40-70 dollars below that of Russian fuel, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuri Boiko said on television Friday evening.

“We have begun to get gas from Europe in the reverse mode. There is a contract for 5 billion cubic meters of gas with Germany’s RWE Supply&Trading,” he said. Boiko confirmed that the price of one thousand cubic meters of gas purchased in Europe was 40-70 dollars below the price of fuel available from Russia.

“We hope that the European gas will be 100 dollars cheaper next summer,” Boiko said.

The price of natural gas that Ukraine imports from Russia under a contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom in the fourth quarter of this year is 430 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

On Friday Naftogaz Ukrainy Deputy CEO Vadim Chuprun said that already now European gas was available to Ukraine at a price about 100 dollars below that of direct supplies from Gazprom.

Ukraine on November 1 started importing gas from Europe. By November 4 Ukraine had imported 3.3 million cubic meters of gas from the West. Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said the import was not large-scale at this point, because at this point it was most important to “polish technicalities, check the reliability of systems and see how much gas we may get.”

Boiko earlier said that European gas was far cheaper for Ukraine than Russian, which his country was receiving under a 2009 contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom.

Earlier, local media said that Naftogaz had signed a contract with Germany’s RWE Supply&Trading for the purchase and sale of fuel on the Polish-Ukrainian border. The contract is valid November 1 through January 1, 2013. Under the arrangement Ukraine is to get about 56.745 million cubic meters of fuel.